Thailand’s PM Prayuth Survives his fourth Vote of Confidence

The Prime Minister of Thailand, Prayuth Chan-ocha, has survived a no-confidence vote in parliament, which he faced for the last time before a general election in less than a year, which he expects to win.

The 68-year-old former army chief was grilled for four days in front of a live audience on television, and on Saturday, he was able to secure enough votes to ensure his position as prime minister once his term was up in March.

Prayuth and his government have been accused of corruption and mismanagement of the economy, and the opposition needs more than 239 of the 477 votes in the parliament to remove them.

It turned out that Prayuth had 256 votes as opposed to 206 votes against him in the end. Nine people abstained from voting.

In 2019, the house of representatives voted for Prayuth to stay on as prime minister after, according to the opposition, the election was conducted according to rules designed to keep him in power, which means that this was the fourth time Prayuth’s performance in office had been put to a vote. The claim has been rejected by Prayuth, who originally seized power in a coup in 2014 and has denied it ever happened.

Last September in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, Prayuth’s government was able to secure 264 votes in the confidence vote despite questions about how it handled the situation.

Recent opinion polls show Prayuth’s popularity is declining, and there have been protests calling for the prime minister to step down and new elections to be held for the past two years.

There have been no indications from Prayuth regarding when an election will take place.